On Friday it was displaying a banner notifying customers that due to “unprecedented demand” it was currently unable to provide next day click and collect deliveries.

Weirdly this was only the case for Tesco products, as “partner items are unaffected.”

But Tesco is only showing this notification on the click-and-collect information page.

On the Tesco Direct homepage the graphic is still offering free next day collection from every store, which is quite underhand really.

M&S has also been forced to withdraw its next-day in-store delivery service and deliveries to customers’ homes have also been delayed by up to two weeks.

According to the Guardian M&S’s new distribution centre failed to cope with the extra demand generated on Black Friday.

Its site has been updated to inform customers that the next-day click and collect service is unavailable, but still says: “Order by 5pm for delivery to your chosen store.”

Surely it doesn’t matter what time you place your order if next-day delivery isn’t an option?

Click and collect services are hugely important for the customer experience, particularly at this time of year, so it’s a major problem if retailers fail to deliver on promised delivery times.

Here’s a look at how other ecommerce retailers are promoting their click-and-collect delivery services.

Argos

Argos operates a hugely popular click and reserve service, but it isn’t currently making a big deal of it on its website.

The homepage carousel is promoting gift vouchers and a 70% sale on Christmas decorations, so shoppers are first made aware of click and collect option at the product pages.

John Lewis

John Lewis lists its delivery options at the bottom of the homepage, but you need to scroll down quite far to find it.

The free click & collect service is at the top of the list, which highlights its popularity among shoppers.

Click & collect is also mentioned on each of the category pages, with collection available from both John Lewis and selected Waitrose stores.

Homebase

Homebase also lists its delivery options low down on the homepage, with the top option being reserve & collect.

However this appears to be the usual homepage template so I don’t think Homebase is doing anything out of the ordinary here.

It doesn’t make any mention of delivery options on the category pages.

B&Q

Again B&Q mentions click & collect on its homepage but it appears to be part of the standard template rather than any particular effort to promote it over Christmas.

Matalan

Matalan has a standard click & collect promo at the top of its homepage, but a warning that deliveries are taking longer than normal appears lower down the page.

Debenhams

All of Debenhams’ various fulfilment options are displayed prominently on its homepage…

…but lower down the page there’s an update warning customers that some standard deliveries are running late.

Waterstones

Click & collect is mentioned on the homepage, but it looks like a fairly standard template.

Evans Cycles

Evans Cycles has a homepage banner linking to its Christmas order dates.

This is really useful for shoppers as they can make a considered purchase without worrying whether the bike will arrive on time.

One of the slides in the carousel also links to the various delivery options, which includes a free click & collect option.

New Look

New Look has adopted the same approach as Evans Cycles.

It lists the final Christmas order date for each of its UK stores which is useful but could have been improved by using a postcode lookup tool rather than making shoppers trawl through a giant list.